Annual membership
Your landlord has a deadline. We watch it for you.
Most renters find out their state gave the landlord a hard deadline only after it has gone by. For one year we hold the date, email you when it lands, email you again if it passes — and the demand letter you would have had to buy at that point is already paid for.
Renews yearly at $39. Cancel anytime — takes two clicks. We email you before every renewal.
What you get: the deadline emails, one demand letter a year, and the documentation checklist. Not a promise about what your landlord does. DepositHawk is not a law firm and this is legal information, not legal advice.
The law we are watching
Every state sets a clock. They are not the same clock.
Security-deposit return deadlines in the United States run from 14 days to 60 days after move-out, depending on the state, and 42 of the 51 jurisdictions DepositHawk tracks allow a tenant to recover more than the withheld amount when a landlord misses that deadline.
A missed deadline is not a judgment call anyone has to argue about. It is a date, and it either passed or it did not. That is the whole reason this membership is worth what it costs: the date is the leverage, and the date is the thing renters miss.
Read this part twice
What you are buying, and what you are not.
Every complaint trail in this category reads the same way: a cheap entry, a renewal nobody saw coming, and a cancellation that needed an email to support. So here is ours in a table, before you pay.
If you are already in a dispute today, the membership is the wrong purchase and we would rather tell you now: buy the $19 demand letter and be finished. This is for the lease that has not ended yet.
How the year runs
Four moments, and we start three of them.
- 01
Today
You join, and we email you a link to your membership page. Enter your state and your move-out date there — that is the only setup there is.
- 02
Before you move
Work through the room-by-room photo checklist. It is free and printable, and it is the difference between a dispute you can prove and one you can only describe.
- 03
Deadline day
We email you. Your state's statutory window closes today, and the email names the statute it closes under.
- 04
The day after
If the money never came, we email again with what the missed deadline changes — and your included letter is one click from that email. No checkout, nothing to enter.
Questions renters actually ask
Before you decide.
Is this a scam?
Fair question to ask of anything in this category. Here is the whole billing arrangement in one place: $39 today, $39 again in a year, and we email you 21 days before that second charge with the date and the amount. Cancelling is two clicks from your own membership page — no email to support, no account to make, no phone call. If you cancel, you keep everything through the end of the year you paid for.
My landlord isn't responding to calls or texts — now what?
Put it in writing, and date it. That is what the included demand letter is for: it names your state's deposit statute, states the date the return window closed, and sets a firm response date. Calls and texts leave you with very little to show later. A dated letter reads differently to a landlord who has been ignoring a phone.
I didn't take photos when I moved out — am I out of luck?
No. The deadline is still the deadline, and a landlord who misses it has missed it whether or not you photographed anything. Photos make a dispute easier, not possible. That is why the membership hands you the room-by-room checklist at the start of the year rather than at the end — so next time the evidence exists before you hand back the keys.
What actually happens after I join?
You get an email with a link to your membership page. Enter your state and your move-out date there and we work out your state's statutory return deadline from it. On the day that deadline lands you get an email. If it passes without your deposit, you get a second one naming the statute your landlord missed — and your included letter is one click away from either.
What if I move before the year is up?
Enter the new move-out date on your membership page and the watch moves with you. One lease at a time, as many times in the year as you move.
Why would I pay $39 when a demand letter is $19?
If you are already in a dispute today, don't. Buy the $19 letter and be done — that is the cheaper answer and we would rather say so. The membership is for the other situation: a lease that has not ended yet, where the useful work happens before the deposit is ever withheld. The letter is included for the year in case it does.
Is this legal advice?
No. DepositHawk provides legal information — your state's actual statute, the deadline it sets, and the penalty it allows — not legal advice. We are not a law firm, and joining does not create an attorney-client relationship. For a large deposit or a complicated tenancy, talk to a licensed attorney in your state.
One year of holding the date. One letter when it matters.
The renters who lose this argument mostly lose it to a date nobody was counting. Hand us the date.
Renews yearly at $39. Cancel anytime — takes two clicks. We email you before every renewal.
DepositHawk provides legal information, not legal advice. It is not a law firm and joining does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadline and penalty data compiled by the DepositHawk Research Team from each state's own statute. Full terms, including refunds, on our terms page.